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Frederick Delius

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Frederick Delius CH (January 29 1862, – June 10, 1934) was a composer born in Bradford in West Yorkshire in the north of England.

Delius's parents were German. Julius and Elise Pauline Delius had moved from Bielefeld, Germany to England to set themselves up in the woollen business. Frederick ('Fritz' to his family) Delius was the fourth of their fourteen children.

Although born in England, Frederick Delius felt little attraction for the country of his birth and spent most of his life abroad, in the United States and the continent of Europe, chiefly in France.

Although Frederick showed early musical promise, his father was very much set against a musical career and wanted Delius to work in the family business.

Contents

In America

Delius senior eventually sent Frederick (apparently at Frederick's request) to be the manager of an orange grove at Solano Grove on the St. Johns River in Florida. There, west of St. Augustine and south of Jacksonville, Delius continued to be engrossed in music and in Jacksonville met Thomas Ward who became his teacher in counterpoint and composition.

Delius apparently had an affair with one of the African-American girls who worked at the orange plantation in Solano Grove. After he returned to England in 1886, Delius discovered that his black mistress had borne him a child. A few years later, tormented by a deep sense of loss, Delius returned to Florida to seek his former mistress and the child. Frightened that he might want to remove the child and take it back to England, the girl fled and Delius never saw her again.

While in Florida, Delius composed a considerable amount of music, including the Florida Suite. The house he lived in from 1884-1885 in Solano Grove was given to Jacksonville University and moved on campus in 1961. The University holds the Delius Festival each year in honor of the composer. After he left Florida, Delius taught music in Danville, Virginia and eventually moved to New York.

Europe

After his stay in New York, his father finally agreed to allow him a musical education, and consented to send him to Leipzig, to study at the conservatory. He was befriended there by Edvard Grieg, who encouraged him and became a lifelong friend.

In 1897 Delius met the painter Jelka Rosen. They soon set up home in Grez-sur-Loing, near to Fontainebleau, but only married in 1903. Apart from a short time when the area was threatened by the advancing German army during the First World War, he lived in Grez for the rest of his life.

In 1907 he met Sir (then Mr) Thomas Beecham, who was to be the greatest champion of his music during his lifetime in the English-speaking world. Until then Delius' audience was German, principally due to the conductors Fritz Cassirer and Hans Haym.

Delius's latter years were spent chiefly at the home he and his wife set up in the French village of Grez-sur-Loing. These years were marred by increasing ill-health. As a young man (possibly in Paris) he had caught syphilis; the long term effects of which were to rob him of his sight and to cause him to become increasingly paralysed, eventually needing to use a wheelchair. He therefore employed Eric Fenby, who originally wrote Delius a fan letter, as his amanuensis and the great works of Delius's final years [link] were dictated to Fenby, who later wrote a book about the experience of working with Delius. See also the film Song of Summer directed by Ken Russell based on Fenby's book starring Max Adrian as the blind composer.

Music

Delius's musical style is characterized by chromaticism, although it is still largely tonal with luscious harmonies - mainly slow moving, with the frequent use of leitmotifs and constantly evolving melody.

Some of his more well known pieces include:

Less frequently performed pieces include a violin concerto, a double concerto for violin and cello and the colourful, picturesque tone poem Paris: Song of a Great City.

Orchestral excerpts from his operas, for example La Calinda from Koanga — which originated in the 1880s Florida Suite — and The Walk to the Paradise Garden from A Village Romeo and Juliet, are also reasonably often played and recorded, as are orchestral works such as On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring. There are a number of chamber works (three mature violin sonatas and one for cello, and a string quartet).

List of works

Bibliography

As an inspiration for other artists

External links

 

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